Mecha Corps (37 page)

But they didn’t understand! They couldn’t just let Rayder go! He’d chase Rayder to the end of the universe—

You will,
Michelle told him.

“That’s next,” Soto said out loud.

Rayder’s fleet of Displacement Drive ships was slipping out of their grasp. Their teams of programmers were systematically building walls around their most important information nodes. If they didn’t do something soon, they’d gain control of their Displacement Drives and disappear.

“Surrender now!” Matt/Michelle/Soto said. The words echoed through every hall of the Displacement Drive armada, on every transmission, through every speaker.

But in all the ships, both human and HuMax eyes looked up and sneered as they redoubled their efforts to throw off the Demon’s control.

HuMax eyes?
Matt started. There were more HuMax than Rayder? Yes. Dozens. Hundreds. The HuMax were still alive.

They closed all of their hands at once.

Around them, eleven violent orange flowers blossomed in space. Fragments of asteroid and sheets of steel armor cascaded through space. Bits of the Displacement Drive ships pattered off them like rain. The Merged Demon shrank back to its original form.

Rayder’s fleet was destroyed! And the Merged Demon was the only force that could have done it. Matt/Michelle/ Soto radiated contented fulfillment.

Far off, only a single Displacement Drive ship remained. The
Atlas
. Rayder’s ship.

“Let’s get him,” Matt grated.

Matt/Michelle/Soto thrust at Rayder’s ship, using all their power. This was it. This was the end. Matt screamed soundlessly in his mask, electrified with glee.

And yet . . . why isn’t Rayder firing?
Matt wondered. But it was a tiny thought, pushed far back in the dark recesses of his mind. It didn’t matter. Maybe Rayder thought he could Displace away. Maybe he just wanted to give them pause by holding back. Just as he’d held back with the power of life and death a decade and a half ago.

Matt/Michelle/Soto reached out as they rocketed toward Rayder’s flagship. Their arms transformed into gleaming red spikes. Matt grinned, imagining Rayder’s flagship shattering into a million pieces.

In a flash, they were there. The Merged Demon’s spikes drove into the ship’s armor, punching deep within. For a moment, Matt/Michelle/Soto felt everything within the flagship. The digital heart of Rayder’s computers. The data he’d hidden from the rest of the Corsairs: huge reams of information gleaned from the ruins of the HuMax city, the complete template of the HuMax genome, the grand search that had driven the Expansion, even the Union’s involvement in—

Look out!
Michelle screamed, sharp and urgent. Four super-Hellions rocketed around from in back of the Displacement Drive ship, their Zap Guns at ready. Intense beams flared from their barrels, blotting out all vision.

Matt, Michelle, and Soto screamed, the sound reverberating as the Merged Demon’s biometallic skin took intense fire. Red warning tags flared all over Matt’s POV, and the dreaded REGENERATING text showed. But this time, the numbers flashed up: 45, 55, 65 SECONDS TO COMPLETION.

Matt/Michelle/Soto thrust one arm desperately deep into the ship, reaching for the antimatter core. That was the only way they’d fight off the Hellion siege.

But instead of the comforting warmth of the ship’s antimatter core, they found something else. A new control, hastily added to the generator. A control that could turn the ship into an antimatter bomb.

Suddenly, Matt saw the whole picture. Rayder wasn’t a showoff. He was a pragmatist. Try to capture the Demon with his remaining Hellions, but if that didn’t work—

—destroy the Demon at all costs.

Matt/Michelle/Soto pulled back from the flagship in a flash, lighting thrusters and rocketing away from the ship.

Behind them, annihilation erupted from Rayder’s flagship, enveloping Matt/Michelle/Soto in a wave of actinic fury.

The skin of the Merged Demon peeled back and burned away, revealing shining metallic muscles. The muscles glowed red with heat and began to melt. The visor went black before flickering back to a black-and-white, low-resolution display.

The pain was like being thrown naked into hot oil. Every nerve exploded with agony. It was so far beyond anything Matt had ever felt, he didn’t even hear his own ear-piercing wails.

When it passed, the Demon hung, uncontrolled for long moments, slowly tumbling away from Rayder’s flagship.

MOVE,
Major Soto thought through the pain.

Matt and Michelle jerked back to attention. Only two small segments of their visual sensors still functioned. The rest flickered or were blank.

But it was enough to see the five Hellions. Four of them were scorched and twisting. One was pristine, untouched by the blast.

Rayder,
Matt thought.

The single Hellion flashed at them, lightning quick, two Zap Guns held in both hands. The barrels glowed deadly blue as the Zap Guns prepared to fire.

Matt/Michelle/Soto’s world shattered into a billion pieces. It was beyond pain. The Merged Demon’s talons crisped and burned away like matches. Biometallic muscle glowed yellow-white and ran like water. The last of their skin seared away. Red warning tags swarmed in their screen, over a display where only a few thousand pixels flickered. REGENERATING indices filled half the screen. They counted down from 9,500 seconds.

Run,
Matt thought.

Thrusters sputtering, the Merged Demon turned away from the Hellion. It jagged to one side to avoid a Zap Gun burst, but a perfectly timed shot from the other gun sent the Merged Demon tumbling.

Matt/Michelle/Soto fired their remaining thrusters, trying for an erratic and unpredictable path. Rayder had sacrificed the entire
Atlas
to get a shot at them. Now he was out for his own retribution.

“Down,” Matt croaked, and thrust the Demon toward the dead planet.

Matt could almost hear Rayder’s harsh laughter. Anger, white-hot and wicked fast, surged in his mind. Matt scrabbled for his own Zap Gun, but the door wasn’t just jammed; it didn’t exist anymore.

“Too much damage for normal transformation,” Soto said, reading Matt’s mind. “We can’t even unMerge.”

Matt groaned in frustration. If he could only get a shot!

Sudden insight bloomed. There was a way he could shoot the Zap Gun.

“You’re crazy,” Michelle said.

No, I’m not,
Matt thought. If he fired the Zap Gun in place—in its hip holster—the beam would cleave right through the biometal. All he had to do was to get his leg lined up with Rayder—

“You’ll blow our leg off!” Soto said.

Do you have another option?
Matt thought, disabling interlocks and rerouting controls for the Zap Gun.

No,
Soto admitted.

Let’s hope we can regenerate,
Michelle thought.

Burn that bridge later,
Matt thought. The Merged Demon’s leg exploded in a cascade of white-hot biometal. The brilliant Zap Gun beam speared inky-red space.

It intersected with the Hellion. Its arm and shoulder went red-hot and flashed to vapor. The Hellion thrashed, trying to get away. Half its visor disappeared.

Matt grinned so hard, it hurt. He could almost hear Rayder’s screams.

The Hellion’s thrusters went ultraviolet-overload and the dark-quicksilver Mecha leapt away in an uncontrolled spin. But it wasn’t dead. The pilot’s chamber was still intact.

They tried to get another shot, but they’d hit atmosphere ; buffeting made targeting with the Zap Gun impossible.

The Hellion fell out of their view, as the biometal heated in the atmospheric plunge.

“Now what?” Soto asked.

“We figure out how to land,” Matt said, watching the HuMax city swell quickly below them. “And quick.”

The Merged Demon lay scattered down the broad avenue of the twisted HuMax city. The white dwarf sun, low on the horizon, slashed alternating gray highlights and pitch-black shadow on the Demon’s carbon-scarred red metal.

The suspension gel had vaporized from the pilot’s chamber, but their view masks still worked. Matt held his in one hand and watched the bad news mount:

“It could be worse,” Soto said.

Matt nodded, but said nothing. He took off his view mask to look around. Through a fissure in the pilot’s chamber, the foul air of the HuMax world seeped, making him cough.

“Yeah, we could be dead,” Michelle added.

“But we’re not,” Matt said. And neither was Rayder. Rayder was down here in the city, as shattered as they were. Maybe worse.

Maybe dead,
Matt thought.

But probably not,
whispered a little voice.
He’s doing the same thing as you. Regenerating. Or else he’d be raining fire on you right now.

A loud chime came from within the Merged Demon, and the biometallic muscles surrounding the pilot’s chamber twitched. Matt’s face screen blinked bright red. He held it up to look inside.

The pilot’s chamber opened with a loud groan. One petal of the iris hung up, halfway open, on the deformed entrance. Hot air, stinking of sulfur, poured in.

“Fucking hell!” Michelle barked, coughing.

“Pull up your hood,” Soto said, grabbing at the back of his utility suit.

“No air!” Michelle coughed.

Soto fastened his hood in place and blew out a big breath. “It’ll draw air from outside and purify it. Somewhat.”

Matt pulled up his hood, fastened it, and took a deep breath. The thin, hot air still stank and hurt his throat, but it was better, more breathable with the suit.

“Pilots exit cockpit,” a voice sounded through the Mecha. “Radical regeneration beginning.”

Soto dropped to the ground and searched frantically on the floor of the pilot’s chamber, as the Mecha began to convulse.

“What are you doing?” Matt yelled.

“Survival kit!” Soto yelled back. “Pistols!”

Aha.
Matt dropped to his knees and helped search. In a small compartment was a single survival kit, including a mini needle-gun pistol.

“Pilots exit cockpit immediately,” the voice boomed, and the Merged Demon convulsed.

“It’ll have to do,” Soto said, scrambling out of the cockpit. Matt and Michelle followed, sliding down the scarred metal to stand on the broad avenue.

From the ground, the HuMax city was monstrous, inhuman in its proportion. The architecture soared with a simple grace and unity of form that Matt had only seen on Aurora, and even then only in a tiny part of the newest cities. Here, even the low, utilitarian buildings boasted subtle curves and angles that enhanced their forms, and blended seamlessly with the city’s overall motif. But the scale was huge, out of proportion. The avenue, if intended for cars, was fully twelve lanes wide, but there were no markings on its glass-smooth surface. Had pedestrians once promenaded down this immense thoroughfare? It wasn’t a city for humans. There was no warmth, no spaces for living. It was a city of nothing but monuments and relics.

Still, even half-shattered and carbon-burned, the crystalline beauty and immense scale once again made Matt wonder,
What have we lost?

The Merged Demon gave a great groan and convulsed. Its arms folded up tight against its body, flowing into it. Its legs tucked underneath itself, and its visor descended into the crushed torso. Red scaffolding grew swiftly over its carbon-blackened craters, but then crept more slowly, its edges glittering with new bright metal.

“How long do we have?” Matt asked.

Soto shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen a Mecha take such a big hit.”

“Will it be able to regenerate, you think?” Michelle asked.

“I don’t know.” Soto sighed. “Radical regeneration. I’ve never seen that. It makes sense, though. Make something new out of what you’ve got left.”

“It might,” Matt said, remembering the Mecha records. Appendix C. “But who knows what it’ll turn into.”

Soto shrugged, his own expression clamped into a grim frown.

“How long can we survive? If it doesn’t fix itself?” Her voiced trailed off in a fit of coughing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Soto said, his voice expressionless. “Rayder will come for us before our lungs rot or we die of radiation poisoning.”

“He may not even be alive,” Michelle said.

“You really believe that?” Matt asked.

Michelle shook her head, looking away.

Soto looked up at the sky. “Even if Rayder is dead, there are still Hellions up there. They weren’t hit that hard. They’ll regenerate. And we don’t know about the
Helios
; we can only assume it’s Corsair-held.”

“So what do we do?” Michelle asked.

“Wait. Hope this thing turns into something that’ll get us to orbit. Hope Rayder doesn’t get to us first. Hope we can overcome the Corsairs on the
Helios
.”

“That’s a lot of hoping,” Michelle said, trying for a smile.

“If you have a better plan, let me know.”

“We could go after Rayder,” Matt said.

Both of his companions turned to stare at him.

“He’s out there,” Matt told them, scanning the city. “We know he crashed. Maybe worse than us. We can find him and take him out first.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you,” Soto said. “You don’t stop.”

“We don’t stop. We’re a team. We don’t need his Mecha to finish this mission.”